4. In a large mixing bowl, combine all veggies, mango, salt, cumin powder and raw shrimp.

5. Squeeze juice of limes onto the mixture and toss until well-coated. Refrigerate for a few hours, mixing from time to time.

Before serving, add avocado and more lime juice if desired. Serve with plantain chips, saltines, wafers or tortilla chips.

Note: The citric acid from the lime juice “cooks’’ the shrimp, meaning they will be more opaque and firm. It is recommended by many health departments that using cooked shrimp in this recipe reduces the risk of food-born illness. This should be especially followed for children, older adults and those with compromised immune systems.

1. Peel the cucumbers, peeling deep so you get some of the flesh with the peels, over a bowl. Place the peels in the bowl.

2. Cut the cucumbers in half length-wise and scrape out the seeds with a spoon. Discard the seeds.

3. Roughly chop half of the cucumbers and place them in a bowl with the peels. Cut the remaining cucumbers into ¼-inch pieces, dice and toss in a colander with 1 ½ teaspoons of salt. Set the colander with the diced cucumbers over a bowl or plate for 15 minutes.

4. Working in batches, if necessary, combine the cucumber peels, the roughly chopped cucumbers, the celery, the parsley, the mint and 1 cup of the yogurt in a blender. Puree, stopping and starting if necessary to make sure all the ingredients are pureed.

5. Scrape into a bowl and stir in the remaining yogurt, the lemon zest, the lemon juice, and 2 teaspoons salt. Let sit for 10 to 15 minutes. Strain into another bowl through a fine-mesh strainer pressing the solids against the sides of the strainer to extract all of the juice.

3. Rinse the salted cucumbers in fresh water. Stir into the soup. Taste and adjust the seasonings as necessary. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for several hours before serving.

4. Place one ice cube in each of 6 to 8 soup bowls. Ladle in the soup.

5. Top with a sprinkling of the mint slivers and chopped chives and serve. Serve soup really cold. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

CHEF Mark Peel and Daphne Brodgon

Summer Arugula Salad

Ingredients

1 lb. baby arugula

1 cup cubed seedless watermelon

12 sliced strawberries

½ cup fresh goat cheese

2 tablespoons toasted sliced almonds

2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts

Dressing ingredients

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

Juice from 2 lemons

1 bunch fresh mint leaves

1 teaspoon raw sugar

1 pinch of kosher salt

1 pinch of white pepper

Directions

1. In a food processor, place mint leaves and lemon juice. Pulse 2 minutes or until well-blended.

The days are longer, the children are home from school, the hours are filled with one activity after another and don’t even mention the heat. After any, or all, of those scenarios, who really wants to cook?

But there’s a good side: Summer offers baskets full of fresh produce, either from the grocery store or your own backyard, and opportunities for fun even if it’s not Saturday night.

Cooking during the summer is a little different than any other time of the year.

“It is because there are a lot of outdoor cooking options and more fresh seasonal ingredients,” said Jose Rodriguez, executive chef at Kellogg West Conference Center at Cal Poly Pomona. “I cook light at home using a lot of fruits, vegetables and a variety of salads.”

He said summer cooking is actually easier because of the multitude of options paired with the chance to cook outside.

“Summer cooking can involve the whole family. You can prepare food ahead of time and using leftovers makes it even easier to make salads and cold or hot sandwiches,” he said. “Kids are home for the summer and always hungry.”

Summer is the perfect time to test and taste different food and ingredient varieties, he said. Seasonal fare brings to mind juicy burgers, lip-smacking barbecue ribs and any reason to fire up the grill. But why limit your creativity and diet?

Professional chefs cook because they love it, but they face the same dilemmas at home that anyone else does — what to cook and what will the family eat when it’s really hot outside.

Rodriguez and two other award-winning Southland chefs – Mark Peel and Upland’s Henry Gonzalez — say making and serving fun summer dishes can be easy and involve five or fewer steps.

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“The season offers more fresh ingredients like produce and fruits, which have a better quality of taste and color,” Rodriguez said.

He loves seafood.

“I love that it is fresh and I like the texture. I love food with fresh flavors,” he said.

Rodriguez suggested two dishes to make for a family dinner that should still allow you time to spend together in the evening. He picked Summer Berry Salad and Caribbean Mango Shrimp Ceviche.

Mark Peel and his wife Daphne Brodgon suggest some soup. Soup? In the summer?

Yes, because this particular dish should help you feel as cool as a cucumber. Peel should know. He is a James Beard Foundation Award-nominated chef and is the former owner of Campanile and the La Brea Bakery in Los Angeles. He is a frequent guest on Top Chef and has plans to open Campanile at LAX.

“So what we like about this soup in the summer is that it fills you up while not heating your kitchen,” said Brodgon, who helps manage her husband’s schedule when she’s not caring for the couple’s children or tending to her very amusing blog Coolmom.com.

“Mark makes a batch and we break out some every other day of the week. It might look mild-mannered, but it has a kick because he adds a pinch of cayenne. Don’t add more! That wasn’t in the original recipe. Also, it goes nicely with cold chicken or poached salmon,” she said.

Their Cold Cucumber and Yogurt soup is a beautiful green color and is great for summer dining fare. It’s important to use either Japanese or English cucumbers because you use the actual peels and the peels of other kinds of cucumbers are too bitter.

Henry Gonzalez is the chef and owner of Spaggi’s in Upland. His wife, Ana, is the general manager. Henry said despite the heat, there’s no place he’d rather be than in the kitchen during the summer.

“I love summer cooking,” he said. “There are so many beautiful fruits available to incorporate into salads, entrees and appetizers.”

He chose a Summer Arugula Salad recipe to share.

“I chose this recipe because it is refreshing and light. It fills you up without feeling too full.

“I like to try out new recipes at home with my family and get their opinion. It was a hit at home and has been very popular in the restaurant as well,’’ he said.

Gonzalez said if you want to add protein to the meal, the salad is delicious with a grilled chicken breast or grilled salmon.